After 62 days of continuous protests the IUF-affiliated Milk Food Factory Workers Union in Punjab, India, won a crucial victory against union-busting and the erosion of working conditions by profit hungry GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare.

In an agreement reached on April 23 all suspensions were withdrawn and union members returned to work the next day. The arbitrary wage cuts imposed in February and March as punishment for union activities were also reversed and will be repaid in full.

This paved the way for a new collective agreement retroactive to October 1, 2012 that substantially improves the wages and benefits of the union’s 1,600 members and addresses the deteriorating working conditions that led to the dispute.

The union thanked the IUF-affiliated Dairy Employees Federation of India (DEFOI) and the IUF Dairy Division for their support in winning a fair deal for dairy workers in Punjab.

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The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is an international federation of trade unions representing workers employed in agriculture and plantations; the preparation and manufacture of food and beverages; hotels, restaurants and catering services; all stages of tobacco processing. The IUF is composed of 394 affiliated organizations in 126 countries representing a combined membership of around 2,6 million.